On the heels of the Digital Learning Council's release of its "10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning," which provides a roadmap to transforming the American education system into a student-centric one powered by digital learning, this case study is a crucial one.

For the Digital Learning Council's vision of the future of education to become reality, high-speed Internet must become a ubiquitous backbone of the system. Innosight Institute's case study, sponsored by the Joyce Foundation, sheds light on how that could happen by profiling one state that extended high-speed Internet access to all of its schools even in the remotest and poorest of areas.

As policy makers consider the best ways to extend high-speed Internet access to all schools, this case study paints a picture of the path North Carolina took to do just that. With a public-private partnership of many players, North Carolina dramatically changed the face of its connectivity within a few short years.

One question going forward that I think emerges from the case study is the sustainability of this initiative, as well as what creative pathways this will open up as technology continues to improve.